Could He Match a Golden Body in Battle?

Early the next morning, Chen Lingxi had just drawn half a bucket of water by the well and finished washing up when he heard faint footsteps outside the courtyard gate.

Liuzhu stood beyond the threshold, empty-handed, and merely delivered a message. "Miss said that from now on, you only need to deliver flower arrangements once every ten days. There's no need to come every five days."

Chen Lingxi acknowledged her and watched Liuzhu's back vanish beyond the moon gate. Yet inwardly, he could not help but praise her. Lin Longyue truly was a clever woman.

She did not know what had happened between him and the Crown Prince, nor why the Crown Prince had let him return. There was no way for her to guess.

Yet though suspicion lingered in her heart, she had not turned it into interrogation, nor had she become excessively warm. She had merely tightened the rope of her preferential treatment slightly—not too loose, not too tight, just right.

It left room to maneuver without making her seem cold-hearted; it neither forced him to expose a flaw nor let him forget that he remained under her watchful eye.

"Lin Longyue really is someone of note... but..."

Chen Lingxi's thoughts drifted to something else.

A great medicine.

During that Total Perception simulation, the jade-colored storm of blood qi had shattered every bone in his body. Before dying, he had heard those words from the mountain, and they still echoed in his ears.

"Do not harm that great medicine."

And when Lin Longyue had struck her forehead and broken the skin, her blood had actually been fragrant. The scent had been cool and seeped into the heart, even stirring an indescribable, mouthwatering craving.

Moreover, Yunhe Commandery Princess seemed to be cultivating by harvesting Lin Longyue's qi.

"Could Lin Longyue actually be a great medicine?"

He shook his head and temporarily suppressed those thoughts.

Those matters were still far beyond his reach. There was no need to rush.

That day, he picked flowers, arranged them in vases, and practiced his fists as usual.

Not until night fell did Chen Lingxi stand before the Mohe Flower and draw a deep breath, inhaling a great deal of its fragrance. He wrapped those highly toxic scents in spiritual qi and concealed them within his body.

Only then did he push open the courtyard gate and leave. His steps were exceedingly light, producing only the faintest rustle against the bluestone ground, like a civet cat prowling through the night.

The Concealed Edge Method circulated soundlessly within him, wrapping his entire aura up tight.

"Go to Silver Peace Court and find Zhao Yong."

"Since he is one of 'my kind,' I might as well make use of Zhao Yong."

Silver Peace Court lay on the western side of the Marquis's Estate, where the retained guests resided.

Though Chen Lingxi had lived in the Marquis's Estate for quite some time, he had rarely set foot here.

He followed the covered corridor westward, passing through two moon gates, when he heard the sound of a sword.

That sword sound was exceedingly soft, as soft as wind brushing the tips of bamboo. If his five senses had not greatly sharpened after reaching the third level of Qi Circulation, he would have struggled to catch it.

Following the sound, he arrived before an open Martial Practice Court on the eastern side of Silver Peace Court.

Someone was in the court.

The man stood beneath the moonlight, tall and slender, dressed in a plain white scholar's robe, with a handsome face.

He was the handsome middle-aged man who had accompanied Wang Kong in the rear garden that day and thrown Chen Lingxi's blood qi into violent disorder.

Chen Lingxi had later made inquiries. This man was Zhao Qinglou, a retained guest of Silver Peace Court.

At this moment, Zhao Qinglou was wielding a sword.

The sword in his hand was exceptionally long, its blade narrow as a chive leaf. It was entirely silver-white, without any ornamentation, save for a layer of cold, piercing gleam beneath the moonlight.

The swordsmanship he used was not complicated. It could even be called exceedingly simple: a thrust, a lift, a sweep, a chop. Every stroke was as slow as an old ox pulling a cart, yet wherever the blade passed, the air was torn into countless fine lines, like a shattered mirror webbed all over with cracks.

What startled Chen Lingxi even more was Zhao Qinglou's aura.

As Zhao Qinglou circulated his technique, blood qi and Sword Qi intertwined and crisscrossed, never interfering with one another, yet rising layer by layer.

Golden light glimmered around him.

It seemed to shine out from the depths of Zhao Qinglou's bones, rendering his flesh nearly translucent. From afar, he looked like a statue cast from pure gold standing beneath the moon, resplendent with golden radiance, blazing like the great sun.

Chen Lingxi held his breath and watched even more intently. He noticed that as Zhao Qinglou circulated his technique, his bones actually rang with the deep sound of a golden bell reverberating within an urn.

The sound was heavy and rich, not harsh in the least. Instead, it was distant and lingering, like a thousand-pound bronze bell struck in an ancient temple, its echoes curling through the air and refusing to fade.

"Golden Body..." Chen Lingxi murmured inwardly.

He had heard Jiang Yuan speak of the might of the Golden Body Realm.

Those of the Golden Body Realm tempered their bones to the utmost, turning them the color of pure gold. Blood qi and bone marrow merged as one, producing the ringing of a golden bell on their own.

Such people possessed the force of a thousand jun in every fist and kick. Ordinary blades and swords striking their bodies were no more than a scratch. Even the Bone-Penetrating Force of the Silver Bone Realm, when it hit them, was like a clay ox sinking into the sea, unable to stir the slightest ripple.

Yet the intensity of Zhao Qinglou's golden light and the weight of his golden bell were far beyond those of an ordinary Golden Body cultivator.

Chen Lingxi vaguely felt that this man had very likely reached the greater mastery of the Golden Body Realm and cultivated the legendary [Purple-Tempered Golden Wheel]. Once that golden wheel was activated, the golden radiance around his body would turn purple-tempered and become indestructible. It could even suppress and kill blood qi through empty air, its power peerless.

After the Golden Wheel reached great mastery, one step further would bring one to the [Golden Astral Force] realm of Golden Body completion. At that point, golden light transformed into astral force and condensed into substance itself—impervious to blades and swords, untouched by water and fire. Beyond that lay the legendary Jade-Qi Realm.

Chen Lingxi watched so absorbedly that he lost himself in thought.

"What are you doing here?"

Chen Lingxi's heart tightened. The Concealed Edge Method suddenly surged within him, wrapping his blood qi and spiritual qi even more tightly before he slowly turned around.

Zhao Yong stood three steps behind him, still wearing that dark green cloak. Its collar stood high, concealing half his face and revealing only a pair of eyes like dried wells.

Chen Lingxi's heart sank slightly, but his expression remained unchanged. He lowered his hands and bowed respectfully. "Steward Zhao."

"Come with me." Zhao Yong turned away.

Chen Lingxi followed him, and the two made their way to the eastern warm pavilion.

In the courtyard, Chen Lingxi straightened, his voice carrying just the right degree of anxiety. "Chen Lingxi does not know when the Mohe Envoy will arrive and has been feeling uneasy. I thought to seek out Steward Zhao and ask."

His spiritual qi stirred faintly, and the fragrance of the Mohe Flower wafted out.

Zhao Yong's gaze paused upon him. A trace of delight suddenly flickered in those dried-well eyes.

Narrowing his eyes, he caught the scent of the Mohe Flower that Chen Lingxi had deliberately released.

"There is no need to hurry." Zhao Yong withdrew his gaze and clasped his hands behind his back, glancing toward the resplendent golden figure in Silver Peace Court. His tone was calm. "The Mohe Envoy's whereabouts are not something you should ask about. When the time comes, he will naturally seek you out."

Chen Lingxi softly acknowledged this, standing where he was as though hesitating over something.

After a few breaths, he suddenly raised his head. "Steward Zhao... Chen Lingxi dares to ask—could Steward Zhao grant me a decent saber technique?"

Zhao Yong frowned slightly. "Why do you wish to practice the saber?"

Chen Lingxi's breathing quickened somewhat.

"One day, Chen Lingxi will surely use a saber to cut off his enemies' heads." A coldness seeped into his voice. "To avenge my parents, who were beheaded at the execution ground."

Zhao Yong looked at him in silence for several breaths.

"Fine." He said only that one word, then turned and walked toward the depths of Silver Peace Court. His dark green cloak fluttered faintly in the night wind before merging into the shadows cast by the corridor pillars, vanishing from sight.

Without betraying anything on his face, Chen Lingxi returned to the servants' quarters.

"Saber technique..." he murmured, the flame in his eyes flickering soundlessly.

Early the next morning, when the sky had only just begun to brighten, someone knocked on the courtyard gate.

Chen Lingxi rose and opened it. Outside stood a servant boy in blue, fair-skinned and meek-eyed, holding a thin booklet in both hands.

The boy offered the booklet with both hands and said only, "Steward Zhao ordered me to deliver this." Then he bowed and withdrew.

Chen Lingxi accepted the booklet and opened the cover.

Four inked characters, vigorous in their brushwork, were written on the title page.

—[Evil-Slaying Saber Method].

He sat down at the table with the booklet in hand and carefully read through it from beginning to end.

This saber technique was not particularly profound. It could not compare to the fierce killing power of Qiu Chihu's Radiant Gold Saber Method, but it excelled in being solid and comprehensive.

The entire manual contained six saber formulas and one hundred forty-two variations. Beneath every saber formula was a detailed method for moving blood qi, precisely explaining the many subtleties of attaching blood qi to a long saber.

When to exhale, when to draw in breath, when to condense blood qi at the blade's edge to enhance its sharpness, and when to disperse blood qi along the spine of the saber to dissipate the recoil.

These things might have seemed ordinary, but they were experiences countless martial men of the jianghu had spent most of their lives fumbling their way toward. Now, they had been set out plainly in black and white, sparing him who knew how many winding roads.

Chen Lingxi thought to himself, Zhao Yong... he truly is willing to pay the price to keep me steady.

He turned to the first saber formula and read it word by word. The more he read, the more startled he became.

It was not the profundity of the saber technique that startled him, but the changes in himself.

"I have studied saber techniques for less than half a day, yet I have already grasped seven or eight parts of the blood qi circulation method for the first saber formula."

Obstacles that had originally required repeated contemplation and word-by-word scrutiny could now be understood for the most part after a single reading. It was as though an illiterate child who had never recognized a single character had suddenly opened his mind—the crooked inked words before his eyes abruptly became orderly and clear, their veins and branches distinct.

"Ascending the tower through Qi Circulation has actually improved my comprehension so greatly." He marveled inwardly and continued reading the remaining saber formulas.

By dusk on the third day, he had committed the entire Evil-Slaying Saber Method to memory.

The six saber formulas, one hundred forty-two variations, the blood qi circulation method for every formula, and the path of every saber movement were all imprinted clearly in his mind, as though he had practiced them for years.

For the days that followed, he practiced the saber by day and took pills at night, alternating without pause.

He swallowed the five silver-white pills one after another. Each one burned fiercely upon entering his stomach, while Silver Marrow blood qi surged through his meridians like a tide, scouring the marrow cavities deep within his bones time and again.

On the morning of the twenty-third day, when he woke from breathing exercises, he suddenly felt a faint itch at the tips of his ten fingers. Looking down, he saw that the finger bones in all ten fingers glimmered with a pale silver light in the morning sun.

The silver light was not dazzling but extraordinarily restrained, like ten pure silver needles embedded beneath flesh, gentle yet cold.

"Lesser achievement in the Silver Bone Realm. Initial mastery of the Silver Marrow Finger."

He withdrew his hand, then took the Gold-Slaughtering Saber from his storage pouch and gripped it.

The pale golden patterns on the blade gave off a faint, cold gleam in the morning light. He activated his spiritual qi and performed the first saber formula of the Evil-Slaying Saber Method. The strand of green qi in his dantian and the Silver Marrow blood qi in his meridians surged into the blade at once. The pale golden patterns abruptly lit up, starlight and lightning reflecting one another.

The Evil-Slaying Saber Method paired with the Gold-Slaughtering Saber, supplemented by the Silver Marrow Finger and the Dragon Roar Technique...

"With my current combat strength, could I contend head-on against someone newly entered into the Golden Body Realm?"